The incident is familiar but perhaps requires fresh
investigation. Rivka, pregnant with
twins, but this being unbeknownst to her, feels a strange sensation that seems
to be curiously linked to her location.
When she passes a place of ‘Torah’ learning she feels a child struggling
to break free and when she is close to a site wherein idol worship takes place,
experiences a similar phenomenon. She is
told through a wise man’s prophetic vision that this is in fact due to two
children being within her womb, each with a natural inclination to one of the
buildings she comes close to. But can this really be the case that the two foetuses
enclosed within a womb can be so drawn to their individual places of interest?
The key to understanding this is found in the realisation
that, contrary to popular thought, the spiritual world is in fact the true reality
and the physical world a mere shadow is this existence. Pointing this out, Reb Yerucham Levovitz zt’l,
explains that just as the needle on a compass naturally directs itself towards
the north pole, so too things of spiritual purity steer themselves instinctively
towards other entities of a similar nature and those of spiritual negativity to
an object that shares its characteristic.
This is not something that needs to be consciously felt or decided upon,
it is an inherent, innate facet of anything that exists. Yaakov and Eisav may not have been able to perceive
where they were with their physical senses, but their inborn inclinations
automatically guided them there.
The corollary of this concept, and the message to us, is that
the more we imbue ourselves with spirituality, the more we will be inclined
towards greater levels therein. The more
we fill our lives with acts and interests of meaningless spiritual voids, or
worse, the less we will be disposed to our true purpose. This goes some way to explaining those who
claim to have no attraction to matters of the soul, which may be due to their
lack of connection to its yearnings previously and total devotion to the body’s
desires. This is of course a loop in which the only way
to enter it is to begin following what the soul longs for, even where the penchant
for it is not yet present. It may not be
our instinctive wish due to the choices we have previously made, but despite it
all this is in fact what the true us truly wants.
May Shabbos bring help to bring out the true us.
L’ilui
Nishmas Leah bas Avrohom
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